


The Surprise Present

by Icon_UK



Category: Batman - Fandom, DCU (Comics), Robin - Fandom, Superman - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-23 23:21:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15617265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icon_UK/pseuds/Icon_UK
Summary: I can write more than fluff, but sometimes I just don't want to





	The Surprise Present

It started with a conversation in the Batplane, following a successful mission. As the Batplane soared towards Gotahm City, a red and blue blur sped through the skies towards Metropolis.

“I know I get to meet Superman WAY more than most kids, way more than most kids put together, but it would be nice if I were able to TALK to people about it.”

“We don’t do this job for recognition or bragging rights, Robin”

“I know that Batman, but you know… just once it would be nice to be able to TELL my friends I met Superman.”

“That’s not really an option in this line of work without too many questions“

And that was that… for the moment, but those who knew him should remember that Batman NEVER forgets.

 

* * *

 

Dick tried not to let his disappointment show that his birthday party was being overshadowed (again) by one of Bruce’s business events.

The party was being held in the grounds of Wayne Manor, but most of those in attendance would be wealthy rich folk who were investors in Wayne Enterprises.

He’d been to plenty of events like this before, and whilst the he did his best to be as civil and, where possible, charming as he could be for Bruce’s sake, even the football field sized buffet table was a poor compensation for the fact that there was almost never anyone his age around.

Alfred was busy having his own version of fun running the visiting caterers ragged (and Dick couldn’t deprive him of that pleasure) and Bruce was usually too busy being… well… “Bruce Wayne, millionaire playboy” to be able to spare him much time. He nearly always ended up going to bed early, though admittedly with at least one masterfully constructed buffet plate (breadsticks laid log cabin style for added height, mayonnaise as cement and fried mushrooms as external bracing) to keep him company.

Bruce had promised they’d do something special at the weekend, and Alfred had given Bruce the look that promised that nothing short of an invasion by giant alien starfish should prevent that from happening. He knew that specific look because the last time there HAD been an invasion by giant alien starfish and it had all gone downhill from there. So as usual he mingled with the rich, powerful and frequently snobbish of Gotham, and put up with yet ANOTHER round of cheek-pinching and head patting from people he hardly knew, and which he bore with as much patience as he could, and if he occasionally daydreamed about putting the next person to ruffle his hair into a headlock and secret identities be damned, well, who could hold that against him?

The atmosphere this time was a little different for a reason he couldn’t quite work out, there were more hushed conversations than usual, and a lot of looking about expectantly.

As such he was unprepared for walking into the stone column in the middle of the garden area that had been cleared for the party. He was sure there hadn’t been a stone column there when the place had been set up, never mind that there was a pennant hanging from it, a red pennant… on a blue stone column.

It took him a couple of seconds to realise what he’d actually done, and by that time the stone column had turned around to look down at him.

“And you are?” asked Superman with a completely straight face.

Alfred, who had appeared with the sort of stealth ninja/butler skills that even Bruce envied, was quick to intervene.

“This is Master Richard, Master Wayne’s ward. I hardly think I need introduce him to YOU, sir.”

The Man of Steel himself beamed down at the dumbfounded boy.

“Oh right! Pleased to meet you Richard. Bruce has mentioned you once or twice, and there are few people he mentions that often.”

Dick was too stunned to take it all in: Superman, in full costume, was attending a Wayne Enterprises business function? How was he supposed to react?

“I… I… didn’t expect to see you here… Sir” (The “Sir” appeared all by itself on his tongue as he spoke.)

“Bruce didn’t tell you I might show up? Must have wanted it to be a surprise, and it was a close run thing whether I could make it, thanks to a hurricane in Texas. Still, Wayne Enterprises does a lot of fine work through it’s charitable programs. It’s particular work with orphans means it has a special place in my heart, as I believe you would understand better than most.” That was said with more understanding than Dick had heard from anyone other than Bruce or Alfred.

“That sort of dedication deserves a little appreciation, and if showing up for a little while and pressing the flesh means more investment, I can manage that every now and again.”

“I know this isn’t your party Richard, but I also understand from Mr Pennyworth that it’s your birthday and that means I think I forgot something.

With a flash he was gone, a streak of blue and red arcing straight up into the sky. Dick just stared after him, trying to take it all in. He saw the expressions on the party guests around him, nudging each other and pointng at the boy who SUPERMAN had spoken to. The bemused smile he gave them all as he shrugged helplessly was completely genuine.

Up in orbit, Superman looked around for just what he was looking for, it needed to be just the right size, and mass and colour and of course, non-toxic to humans … X-ray and telescopic vision saw and discarded tens of thousands of possibilities until it found just what he was looking for.

A couple of seconds later he landed exactly where he’d taken off from. In his hands he held a piece of rock, the size and shape of a slightly flattened baseball. He showed it to Dick, who tried to look impressed by a rock. It was a dark red colour, shot through with threads of gold and green.

“It’s a meteorite… well, it would have been if it had ever made it as far as the atmosphere. The red is because it’s high in iron compounds, the green veins are a copper compound I think, and yellow really is gold. Not a combination you’d find on Earth, but it’s a big universe out there. Now for the finishing touch.”

Holding it in his left hand, Superman’s eye flashed as he used heat vision to carve an initial onto the meteor, a large capital “R”.

"Here you go Richard.” said Superman as he passed it over.

Dick looked down at the object in his hand in amazement, and was even more surprised to hear his own voice say, on auto-pilot “My name is Richard, but everyone except Alfred calls me Dick”

Superman looked crestfallen “I am SO sorry Dick, when Mr Pennyworth here introduced you as Richard I thought that R was the proper initial for you. Give me a minute and I’ll go get another one”

Dick reached up and caught his arm “No, there’s no need Superman. Richard IS my name after all, and how many people can say they got a typo from Superman?”

Superman was insistent though, and smiling and shrugging to the assembled crowd, flipped the stone, over and produced a matching capital “D”, to laughter and a smattering of applause. “Can’t have Superman accused of encouraging poor penmanship!” he announced out loud, to more laughter.

Superman handed the stone back to Dick and, leaning slightly closer for the inevitable photo op that was being snapped by several photographers in attendance, said in a tone so low no one else could hear, "And of course, for people who know you well enough I think the colours and the R might be the correct ones, no?” and tipped him a wink.

Dick was grinning like an idiot and didn’t care. A present was one thing (and a GREAT thing at that) but Dick Grayson sharing a secret with Superman, and in public? That was something special.

“Thank you so much!”

“My pleasure Ri… Dick. Now if you’ll excuse me, I see a couple of fatcats who just might need a little more positive reinforcement before they contribute a couple of hundred thousand.”

And with that he moved on, the crowd following him like a flies around a honeypot.

Standing alone, Dick looked at his gift again, and smiled.

Off to one side Alfred and Bruce were standing side-by-side, Alfred slipping a camera back into his pocket “It was most kind of Master Superman to show up for your function, sir.”

“I think we both know the reason he’s here Alfred. He’d have shown up for Dick’s sake anytime I asked him of course, but this way…”

“This way, it’s a story that Master Dick can tell to his school-friends? With a souvenir that he doesn’t need to hide away in the.., ahem ‘other’ cellar beneath the Manor?”

“Astute as always Alfred.”

“One tries, sir.”

“Of course, we’ll need to mount it so that the D is most prominent most of the time. The colour scheme and the R are a little on the nose.”

“Of course sir, I was thinking of a mount which shows the D, but which might, at the press of a concealed switch, rotate to show the other side, when Master Richard might feel the wish to remember his… FULL name. Master Dick has a fondness for such… espionage like tricks.”

“Nice idea… and I’ll take a couple of copies of those photos too. It would fit Bruce Wayne’s façade to have a framed copy on his desk in the office.”

Alfred limited himself to a simple “Yes of course sir, the ‘façade’.”

His unerring sense of timing told Alfred it was time to melt away into the Manor as Bruce moved forward to have a word with his ward, who was already heading in their direction with the biggest grin on his face either of the older men had seen in a long time.

Some moments a son just wants to share with his parent.


End file.
